Obtaining a cannabis license to sell is tricky, but for minorities trying to break into the industry, it becomes ten times harder. According to NBC News, less than a 5th of those involved in owning or having a stake in a legal cannabis businesses were people of color, and only 4.3 % were black.
In October of 2017, Florida legislatures passed a new license to be given to black farmers who are “Pigford Class” members. The term “Pigford Class” comes from the 1997 federal discrimination lawsuit, Pigford v. Glickman. Timothy Pigford, a black farmer, sued the US Department of Agriculture for years of racial discrimination. Discrimination, lawyers argued, was the main reason he and other black farmers were denied loans on countless occasions. The US Department of Agriculture issued the black farmers a $2 billion settlement.
Fast forward to 2022, and Florida finally awarded a black farmer from the Pigford lawsuit, Terry Donell Gwinn McAlpin, the new medical marijuana license that the Florida legislature created back in 2017. They can add marijuana to the number of successful crops they grow, such as watermelons and peanuts (You can find their peanuts in the famous Hershey’s candy bars). Even with the success of a black farmer receiving this lucrative business license, the $146,000 fee attached is double the amount it was in previous years. There are many barriers that BIPOC face in trying to break into this industry: there is the cost of property leasing, licensing, attorney fees, product inventory, and employees. Due to these items being high cost, many BIPOCs can’t afford them out of pocket or even qualify for loans and must hope to get crowdfunding, or investors.
Another barrier is location. History has shown that BIPOCs are offered the short end of the stick when trying to establish farms in the U.S., whether receiving land that can’t be used for harvest or being forced off their land for industrial use. In 2018, a group of black farmers sued a seed company, Stine Seed Company, stating they were sold poor-quality seeds while their white counterparts received high-quality products. Even with the hurdles and restrictions in the cannabis industry, this milestone signals a huge step forward for black and POC farmers. Currently, there is only one BIPOC medical marijuana grower in Florida.
